Kingston Growth
Several Key Developments Currently Under Way Throughout The City. Kingston is a beautiful community located where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Well-known for its historic downtown, it is also home to Queen’s University, St. Lawrence College, the Royal Military College of Canada, CFB Kingston, and Correctional Services Canada. As these institutions continue to grow, so does investment. “Investors are taking advantage of growth in our leading institutions and the subsequent increased demand,” says James Ward, Principal, Rogers & Trainor Commercial Realty Inc. Brokerage. “Capitalization Rates vary between five and nine percent depending on the project and location, from an investment perspective the returns are typically higher than what you would find in larger metropolitan centres such as Toronto or Ottawa.”
Key developments are currently under way across Kingston including the eastern and western suburbs, downtown, and in the student residential market around Queen’s University where Patry Inc. is developing a 504-bed facility at the corner of Princess and Victoria Streets. There’s also two 10-story student condominium under joint development by Podium Developments and the Reichmann Group scheduled to begin late 2014. In the historic downtown, a major tourism and commercial centre for the city, BPE Developments is re-developing three historic buildings into residential apartments and commercial spaces, as well as The Tower: Clergy-on-Queen, a former Victorian church into residential and commercial condos. “Downtown is the heart of the city and where it all started with the old stone buildings that tourists love. We’ve maintained a lot of life in our downtown compared to other communities, so saving these structures is vital to saving that character,” says Ben Pilon, owner of BPE Developments. “The city has made changes and is tackling obstacles and made large investments. I would highly encourage people to invest in downtown Kingston.
Kingston’s western suburbs are where the main expansion is taking place as the largest commercial area of the city including the RioCan Centre and Cataraqui Town Centre. New developments include projects by the Clermont Group and New Empire Design Build Contractors Ltd. as well as two new projects in pre-development. The eastern suburbs are home to CFB Kingston, Canada’s largest military base, and are a growing commercial and residential area. Key projects include two new residential apartment buildings under construction by Homestead Land Holdings Limited with 178 units in each and a new grocery anchored retail development by Taggart Realty Management.
In addition, the City of Kingston offers several business development parks, taking advantage of its location and industrial sectors including the St. Lawrence Business Park, designated for business and research operations; Cataraqui Estates Business Park, for general industrial activities and business or professional offices; Alcan Business Park for mixed-use business activities; and, Clyde Industrial Park, which aims to attract mixed-use industrial companies that provide support to manufacturing and assembly operation, laboratories, processing plants, distribution, and wholesale businesses. “The fundamentals of Kingston are good and it gets people’s attention,” says Ward. “Kingston is located along the 401 Highway Corridor between Montreal and Toronto near the Thousand Islands Bridge with direct access to the Eastern United States market.”
For more on commercial investment opportunities, visit the Kingston Economic Development website at business.kingstoncanada.com
